Would love some input for my noob homeowner self.
Bought a new house recently, and we'd like to do some landscaping to the backyard so it's more enjoyable.
Main priority is to get rid of all bark dust and lay weed tarp + some combo of river rock/gravel/stone/pave (opinions welcome on those), and then extend our patio out to the fence line, or close to it.
Need advice on what our general strategy and expected price should be depending on which materials we go with.
Things to consider:
-The corner I'm standing in for the 1st picture drains terribly, and being in the PNW it just pools there for days due to the grading being a little off + drainage sucks here with our layers of clay, so if we don't extend the patio all the way what's our game plan there? Lay some sand underneath whatever else we go with?
-For the patio extension, is paver the only/best way to go? Or do we just rip out that section of grass and do some kind of rock/stone? We'd like to have a firepit + patio furniture out there
-We have a Labradoodle (hence the dead grass spots + desire to get rid of all bark because it clings to her fur and then slowly falls off throughout the house), so we'd like to keep the remaining ~2/3 of the lawn healthy, but even with fertilizer + steady watering it looks terrible. It definitely needs to be reseeded, but am I just always fighting an uphill battle here with a female dog?
-We had 1 landscaping company come out for a quote, and they said if we just did tarping + 11 yards of river rock (their estimate) + edging the lawn, they'd charge around $3,000 for everything. Seemed like a lot since that didn't even include doing anything with the patio, but I don't have any experience in this area so that may be perfectly reasonable.
*Getting a 2nd consult/estimate tomorrow, so I'd appreciate any input on other ideas we should be considering and what $ amount seems reasonable.
Thanks!